PlanetSpace & Canadian Arrow had to set back its schedule

By Alan Boyle MSNBC.com: PlanetSpace, has had to set back its schedule. Geoff Sheerin, head of the Canadian Arrow rocket team and a partner in PlanetSpace, said in August that he hoped to begin testing of the Arrow’s escape tower system by the end of October. But now Sheerin and his business partner, Indian-American entrepreneur Chirinjeev Kathuria, say the preparations have taken longer than they planned.

“We are building a test stand in northern Ontario and beginning the fabrication of components,” Kathuria said in an e-mail. “We are preparing the environmental study required for our escape tower launch test.”

Once the environmental and safety plans win approval from the Canadian Forces and Transport Canada, the tests would proceed at Cape Rich on the shore of Ontario’s Georgian Bay, Planetspace said.